(As originally published with legal documents, Fri, September 15th 2023, 5:55 PM EDT; first article here)
TROY, Ill. (TND) — A man in Illinois is behind bars, charged with murder after his mother was found strangled.
The state’s attorney in Madison County, east of St. Louis, says police responded to a home at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday after getting a welfare check request.
They were met by Neil Howard, 44.
Then, they found his mother, Norma Caraker, unresponsive and not breathing. Efforts to resuscitate the 60 year old were not successful.
Howard was arrested without incident.
He’s actually charged with two counts of first-degree murder despite there being only one victim.
That’s common practice in Illinois, and the State’s Attorney’s Office explained to The National Desk, “The two counts state the allegation in somewhat different ways.”
The first count said Howard, “With the intent to kill Norma Caraker, strangled Norma Caraker thereby causing the death of Norma Caraker.”
The other said he “strangled Norma Caraker, knowing such act created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm to Norma Caraker, thereby causing the death of Norma Caraker.”
A judge set bail at $3 million.
Information about a possible motive will come at another time. The prosecution cannot discuss that outside of court.
On online check of Madison County court records found Howard has a long list of run-ins with the law.
